


Trust Your Heart

by PoliticalPadmé (magnetgirl)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anidala Week, Clone Rights, Gen, Skywalker Family Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-27 22:12:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10817793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetgirl/pseuds/PoliticalPadm%C3%A9
Summary: Leia has a bad feeling about this.





	Trust Your Heart

Leia fidgets in her seat. She’s never seen so many people looking so grim. The Senate chambers are titanic, and so darkly lit it's hard to pick out faces, but the atmosphere leads Leia to imagine them all stern and forbidding. Something pricks at the back of her mind. She doesn't like it. **  
**

_Stop it_ , she tells herself firmly, there are no monsters in the Senate. _You're not a baby, you're a senator's daughter and you gotta act like it! Everyone is watching._

It's an exaggeration to imagine everyone, or anyone, is watching but Leia straightens her shoulders, lifts her chin, and focuses on the sigil of House Organa painted on the chair in front of her.

"Would you like any refreshment Mistress Leia?"

"No, thank you, Threepio," Leia answers almost instinctively -- and prematurely, she is thirsty but the droid is such a nanny-nuisance she's become used to waving him off.

"I'm certain your father will return any minute now."

Leia rolls her eyes. She doesn't need reassurance. The bad feeling might be getting worse as the room fills up but she isn't afraid. "I'm not afraid of anything," she whispers, assertive, into the dark.

Someone chuckles behind her and she jumps in her seat, startled. Glancing back she finds her father's twinkling eyes and turns red. "I'm sorry, Leia," he says immediately. "I'm not laughing at you, I promise." He takes the seat beside her.

She bites her lip. He wants to tell her there's nothing to be afraid of, but he knows too well it would be a lie. The galaxy is full of monsters. "You're very brave," he tells her. Just like her mother.

Leia frowns. Brave means taking a risk even if it's a mistake. "Feels wrong," she tells him. His eyes narrow and he turns his attention to the senate, the seats filling with as many enemies as friends. He pulls out a comm unit and opens a channel.

"It's me." His eyes flit around the box as he speaks, nothing seems out of order, but they've missed things before. "Is everything alright?"

Leia doesn't hear the answer. She moves closer and slips her hand into her father's.

"No, I just… it feels wrong." He meets Leia's eyes. "I know it's too important to delay," he cuts off the other side's argument before it's made, "but be careful."

Anakin closes the comm and pulls his daughter onto his lap.

"It's important to trust your feelings, Leia. But you can't let them control you. Does that make sense?"

Leia is quiet a long moment, considering. "No," she answers, finally, honestly.

Anakin flashes her a rueful smile. "No, I guess not." He takes a deep breath. "You're worried about your mother." She nods, earnest. He smiles. "Me, too. She's doing something a lot of powerful people don't want her to do. But -- she's not alone. She has Obi-Wan and Master Windu and Commander Cody and Senator Organa and Mon Mothma--"

"And Luke," offers Leia.

"And Luke," agrees Anakin. "And you know who else?"

Leia's face scrunches in thought. "Artoo?"

"Well, yes," he laughs. "But--"

"He means you, princess," Ahsoka chimes in behind them, leaning in to brush a finger to Leia's nose. Rex stands just beyond, and winks when she catches his eye.

"Please take your seats more quickly," Threepio chirps as he ushers them in.

Anakin raises a hand. "It's okay, Threepio, these things never start on time." The droid continues to rock in consternation so he adds, "Would you please get Leia some juice?"

"Of course!"

"Me, too," Ahsoka requests as she drops into the seat in front of the Skywalkers, ready to spring into action at any hint of trouble.

“Of course,” the droid repeats and shuffles off happily to complete the task.

Leia peers from Anakin to Ahsoka. "We're with Mama and Luke even when we're not...with Mama and Luke?" she asks, trying to work it out. Ahsoka nods in encouragement. Anakin presses a finger to her chest.

"What does your heart tell you?"

Leia blinks. "Yes?" Her father smiles. "Yes."

"Trust that feeling." He pulls her into an embrace.

"But don't let it control you," she murmurs into his hair.

"That’s right."

Leia climbs off his lap and returns to the seat beside him as Threepio passes her and Ahsoka glasses of amber liquid. Queen Organa follows behind and nods to Anakin and his daughter as she takes the seat beside Ahsoka.

The senate's speaker system jumps to life as Padmé and her contingent of politicians, Jedi, and clones are announced. She stands at the center front of the floating senate box flanked by Obi-Wan and Bail, her small son standing just in front of the Jedi. Mother and son are dressed in identical elaborate robes of blue and silver. It’s a stark contrast to Anakin and Leia, in dark leathers and white silk respectively, but watching from the galley, in Alderaan’s box so the Gungans can fill Naboo's, allows it.

Padmé scans the hall as she prepares to speak. It's taken years to craft the Clone Rights Bill, and gather enough support to push it through the Senate, still fractured by Palpatine's machinations and the defection of a third of the Republic in the immediate aftermath of the War. But Padmé never faltered, seeing the clones’ fight for equal treatment by the government as no different from her fight against slavery in the Outer Rim. She’s determined to reform the Republic into something she's proud to serve. Her box overflowing with representatives of not only the New Republic, but the Alliance for Peace, the Free Clones, and both the Old and New Jedi Orders, is proof her vision and will are enough to make it reality. The fight is far from over but they've come so far already. She believes Luke's and Leia's children will grow up in a galaxy at peace.

The senate chambers are full to bursting with supporters, detractors, and those undecided, but Padmé finds her husband's eyes by instinct. He glows with pride. "Gentlebeings of the galaxy," she begins, her voice amplified to every corner of the Republic and beyond, "I come before you to right a grave wrong."

Anakin senses Leia's tentative touch even before she moves her hand, and turns a questioning glance her way. "I'm still scared," she whispers. He hears shame in her voice and quickly pushes away his flare of anger, before she can sense it, and misinterpret the cause. He leans down to meet her wide eyes.

"That’s just the Force telling you to pay attention."

Some nights Anakin still dreams of destruction. Friends betrayed, children murdered, planets exploding. He wakes in a cold sweat, wracked with fear and shame. After all these years it is still hard to talk about. To admit to. The monster his daughter senses is within him, simmering just below the surface. The fear she is struggling with -- the fear of losing her mother -- drove him to the brink of sanity, and nearly over.

 _Wait for us in the Council Chamber until we return._ He hadn’t listened, had ignored the order and run to the senator Padmé most trusted, the senator whose box they sat in now. _The Chancellor is a Sith Lord and the Jedi are going to assassinate him._ Bail had arrived with guards just as Anakin cut off Master Windu's hand. Both Jedi and the Chancellor were brought before a Senate inquiry, but only Palpatine was found guilty.

Thunderous applause interrupts the memory. Anakin blinks.

"So I should ...trust the Force…?" Leia murmurs, a slight inflection making it more a question than a conclusion. She's still trying to work it out.

Anakin meets Ahsoka's eyes over Leia’s head before answering, firmly and clearly, "You should trust yourself."


End file.
